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LABOR MARKET SPOTLIGHT: GARLAND/ROWLETT

January 9, 2018 - 10:15am
Dallas Regional...

Garland/Rowlett’s workforce skews heavily toward the manufacturing, food production, and food distribution sectors. Kraft Foods’ facility and U.S. Food Service, both located along Forest Lane in Garland, are major employers.

As in most of North Texas at the turn of the 20th century, the Garland/Rowlett area workforce was heavily geared toward agricultural production. Cotton was king until industrial production took center stage in the 1930s with the arrival of Craddock Foods (which produced pickles) and the Byer-Rolnick Hat Corp. (precursor to Resistol Hats), according to the Garland Economic Development Partnership website.

Roughly 64 percent of the workforce has at least a high school education; nearly half of all workers’ commutes are less than 10 miles in length. Most of the workers commute eastward to arrive at their jobs in the Garland/Rowlett area. Office and administrative support positions, retail positions, and food prep and serving are the top three occupations in the region, according to federal jobs data.

Yet, late 19th century newspaper accounts hold that Garland’s core was nearly engulfed in a conflagration. “Passengers on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas train arriving last night said when they passed Garland, it looked as though the whole town had gone,” The Dallas Morning News reported on Dec. 1, 1899. “All they could see standing in the business portion of the place being one brick storehouse.”

The Garland/Rowlett area rose from the ashes as a major first-ring suburb. And master plans of Garland and Rowlett envision their communities’ redevelopment being fueled by residents seeking the benefits of living near a major urban core.